Programming enthusiasts at Elon gather to learn about Python

Assistant Professor Alfred Simkin shared his knowledge of using Python programming language during a campus workshop.

Experienced and novice programmers at Elon gained insight into using Python programming language in a workshop led by Alfred Simkin, assistant professor of biology.

The Center for Organizational Analytics hosted “Big Data and the Power of Learning to Program,” during which programming enthusiasts learned more strategies and guidelines for complex coding.

Novice programmers collaborated with each other to take a self-guided programming course to learn Python, a widely used high-level programming language.

The workshop, held April 13, was designed to form a community of programmers at Elon who can learn from and support each other.

The participants discussed that programming is a vital tool as big data becomes ever more important, but also poses challenges and can be overwhelming.

The Center for Organizational Analytics plans to host more Python programming events throughout the upcoming academic year. Future events will focus on specific applications in social media analytics and text mining.

About the Center for Organizational Analytics

Elon’s Center for Organizational Analytics serves as a hub to bring together faculty, students and industry thought leaders to disseminate best analytics practices, solve organizational problems, and promote teaching, outreach and research in the area of analytics. The Center accomplishes this through student projects, consulting and professional training to demonstrate how analytics can be used to provide solutions for problems faced by organizations today.